


strength

by idvko



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, i guess, idk there's not much to this tbh, if you squint hard enough it's einazu, set during knights killers arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 13:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19831429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idvko/pseuds/idvko
Summary: "...For today we’re comrades. We’ll help each other. So rely on the rest of us a little~”Minutes before Knight Killers is due to go on stage, Eichi goes missing. Nazuna is tasked to find him before the show begins, but the boy he ends up finding isn't exactly the ruthless "emperor" everyone's made him out to be.





	strength

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you [ @survivalinstinctvalkyria ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/survivalinstinctvalkyria/pseuds/survivalinstinctvalkyria) for beta-ing this for me! I really appreciate it!

It was getting noisy, and that was the first thing that indicated to Nazuna that the show was going to be starting soon. He peered between one of the curtains of the stage — one of the ones further offstage to avoid being seen by any curious eyes from the audience. People were starting to fill up the stands, murmuring to one another and contributing to the growing rumble of indiscernible voices. The house lights were still up, meaning Nazuna could more or less make out the faces of his classmates and the students from the regular course. His stomach fluttered nervously.

“Wahh! That’s a lot of people!”

Leo had appeared at his side suddenly, making him jump and give an undignified squeak of surprise.

“Leo-chin!” Nazuna scolded. “Don’ shneak up on me like that!”

“Sorry, sorry! You jump up like a rabbit, so it’s fun!” He didn’t look apologetic in the slightest, a wide smile stretched across his face and his bright green eyes dancing in excitement. He was more or less ignoring Nazuna to peer past the curtain at the forming crowd.

“It’sh not fun for me,” Nazuna grumbled, already aware that his words were falling on deaf ears. He supposed he couldn’t blame Leo for his enthusiasm. This battle was his after all — a duel between him and his own unit. Nazuna and the others were there to support him and back him up, sure. But there was a reason that tonight he was their “King.”

Nazuna didn’t fully understand it, but then Knights had always had a different way of doing things. Even in the days of Chess — or was it Backgammon? — the unit was unruly and chaotic, choosing to resolve disputes through tests of strength to weed out the weak.

He didn’t particularly like it — it was like a tradition of culling, and it felt brutish and unnecessary. But then he supposed that might have been because he classified as one of the weak, and would have been one of the first to be struck down for his lack of talent.

He shoved aside these quickly darkening thoughts and gave a gusty sigh, clasping Leo’s shoulder.

“Move away from the curtain Leo-chin. People might see you, and we don’t want to give away the surprise~”

To Nazuna’s relief, Leo nodded easily at this and obediently backed away from the curtain, only to suddenly throw his arms out into a dramatic pose, nearly punching Nazuna in the nose.

“Right, right! We’re Knight Killers today, so this is technically our debut! Riding out from the darkness to slay those wayward knights who are lost without a king! Ahahahaha!” He cackled loudly, and Nazuna clapped a hand over his mouth with a look of exasperation.

“Quiet, Leo-chin,” Nazuna warned him, dragging the struggling redhead away from the edge of the curtain and further backstage. “It’ll ruin the surprise if they hear you too, y’know~”

“Oi. Tuskinaga. Nito.”

Both of them jumped at the sound of Kuro’s voice behind them. When they turned to face him, Nazuna’s hand still firmly sealed over Leo’s mouth, and Kuro’s stern expression cracked a little in amusement at the sight.

“It’s nearly time to start,” he said as-a-matter-of-factly. The rumble from the audience was still incredibly loud from here at the wing backstage, but Nazuna knew as soon as the house lights dimmed, they would quiet quickly. They had to be ready for that moment, especially since they were leading the charge — or so Leo had put it earlier. “I hope you two are ready - it would be a disservice to our audience and our opponents if we didn’t take this duel seriously, after all.”

Leo finally managed to pry Nazuna’s hand away, his laughter booming through the stage wing once more. He clapped a hand on Kuro’s shoulder, having to reach up a little awkwardly to do so. “Of course! Ahh, just imagining it is starting symphonies in my head! My inspiration is flowing! Naru, Sena, Ritsu! Newbie!” He cackled to himself, flourishing his cape and dancing around in tight circles. “It’s not fun if it’s not a fight to the death! I hope you’re all ready, my Knight Killers won’t lose!”

“Don’t tire yourself out before we even start,” Kuro scolded and shook his head, although the faintest smirk was pulling at the corner of his lips. Leo gave a mischievous chuckle at that, but seemed to take Kuro’s suggestion to heart, clasping his hands behind his back and contenting himself with humming the song he’d written them as he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet.

Kuto turned to Nazuna with eyebrows raised expectantly, and the shorter boy looked up at him curiously in response. “I’m just going to check your outfit,” Kuro explained, waiting for Nazuna’s small nod of understanding before stepping forward to examine the seams of his clothing. Nimble fingers expertly smoothed out the areas that had pulled awkwardly around his figure while he’d been practicing backstage, gently adjusting the corsage on his chest and straightening out the chains so that they hung cleanly against his clothing.

Nazuna stood still as he did his work, suddenly struck with a feeling like deja-vu.

He tried not to dwell on it.

“There,” Kuro said as he took half a step back and nodded approvingly. Nazuna shook himself from his stupor in time for Kuro not to notice the vacant look that had crossed over his features while he was at work.

“How do I look?” Nazuna asked playfully, pulling a dramatic pose. He felt like maybe he was forcing his smile a bit, but Kuro gave a low huff of laughter.

“More villainous, baby face. Keep working on it.”

Nazuna chuckled a bit at Kuro’s reaction, feeling himself relax quickly. Having finished with Nazuna, Kuro turned to Leo to carry out the same inspection, having to physically pull Leo around to get a better look at his cape.

“You’ve already strained some of these seams,” Kuro reported, sounding exasperated.

Leo made a noise of indignance. “Then they should have been made better!”

“Don’t say that — I don’t particularly care if you like my handiwork, but the little miss helped me out with these, you know.”

Nazuna stood to the side, arms crossed as he absentmindedly observed their tussling and bickering. He hadn’t been with Knight Killers for longer than a few days, but the familiar loudness of their interactions already felt strangely comforting. It crossed his mind suddenly that something very obvious was missing from this moment.

“Where’s Tenshouin?”

Nazuna’s question hung in the air for a long moment. Kuro and Leo had fallen silent — Kuro’s expression was scrunched into a frown as he clearly fought to remember the last time he’d seen their missing teammate, while Leo pouted, looking offended more than anything at this turn of events. Nazuna was wracking his brain as well, going back through the events of the day and trying desperately to pick out the moment he’d last seen Yumenosaki’s infamous “emperor”.

“He’d better show up. We’re on soon,” Kuro said, his concerned expression contrary to his rough tone. At the same time Leo exclaimed:

“That blockhead emperor! Is he plotting some scheme again? I’m the king, so he’d better not be planning to overthrow me!”

“C-calm down, Leo-chin,” Nazuna pleaded, unable to keep his voice level. He could feel his heart was starting to beat fast - the telltale sign of adrenaline as it began to flood his system. They didn’t have much time to spare. Luckily, the house lights were still on, but it wouldn’t be long before they were dimmed and the live would begin. 

“Nito,” Kuro met his gaze seriously, and Nazuna knew what he was going to say even before his mouth had rounded around the last syllable of his name. It only made sense — Kuro needed to finish adjusting Leo’s outfit, and Leo himself had to be present if the live were to start without them.

“I’ll find him,” Nazuna said, fighting to sound calm even though it felt like his heart was starting to rise into his throat. He slipped past the pair of them just as Kuro finally fastened a strong grip on Leo’s arm to finish examining the state of his costume.

The hallways backstage were eerily quiet, the only sound the hum of the fluorescent lights above. Knights would be on standby on the opposite wing of the stage by now, and the stagehands were poised and ready for the show to start. 

He didn’t even know where to begin. He couldn’t recall when he’d last seen Eichi, and his growing panic was making his memories blurry and jumbled. He forced himself to take a deep breath, even though he was already considering the possibilities. Was Eichi not feeling well? Would he have retreated to the restroom? The green room perhaps? 

Nazuna’s mind continued to race as he peeked into room after room in his search. Empty green rooms, storage rooms, quiet stairwells. He hissed in frustration as one of the doors rattled in his grip, locked and inaccessible. He tried to peer through the door’s window, but inside was dark. Eichi wouldn’t have locked himself away, would he? What if he wasn’t well enough to perform? What if something had happened to him?

He was getting more restless with each second that ticked passed, and he found himself hyper aware of the sound of the audience as it filled the hallways through the speakers dotting the ceiling. In his haste, he almost passed a nondescript door at the end of the hall — it looked like one of the many storage rooms he had passed before, filled to the brim with theatre props and lighting equipment. 

But the fact that the door was slightly ajar made him hesitate. 

Slowly, he pressed it open further. It was dark inside, and the light from the hallway spilled inside as he opened the door, illuminating stacks of cardboard boxes and looming speakers and large plastic bins of extension cords. 

And the slightest hint of soft golden hair, hidden between stacks of folding chairs.

He stood still for a moment, waiting to see if Eichi had noticed him enter, waiting to see if he would lift his head to see who had opened the door and filled the room with harsh yellow light from outside. But there was no movement, and he did not speak. Nazuna took another step inside, leaning forward and trying to peer around the maze of equipment to get a better look. He approached slowly, not entirely sure whether Eichi was even conscious or not. A closer vantage point revealed that the other boy was huddled into a tight space between two of the chair racks, knees tucked up to his chin and face hidden in crossed arms.

He didn’t know what to do — he didn’t want to prod him in fear that the sudden contact would startle him, like the animals he sometimes took care of on the school grounds. He didn’t know if he was ill or hurt, and he didn’t want to make it worse by being hasty and impulsive. He slowly knelt down on his knees a few feet away and called to him softly.

“Tenshouin?”

For a moment there was still no reaction, and all Nazuna could hear was his own pulse beating in his ears, his stomach churning violently in nervousness. Nazuna had opened his mouth to call out to him again when Eichi lifted his head slowly. He was largely still obscured in darkness, the shadows from the boxes and chair racks thrown across his face as moved. His expression was strangely blank and his face looked a little pale, although the harsh and jagged shadows cutting across his features made it hard to tell for sure. When his gaze lifted enough to see Nazuna before him, a look of mild surprise flit across his features.

“My...” he spoke softly, slowly. He smiled gently but it was delayed at this point, like he’d forgotten how. “This is embarrassing.”

Now that he was smiling and speaking without much trouble, Nazuna’s first instinct was to scold him — they were here for a _live_ after all. How could he be so irresponsible as to disappear without telling anyone when they were so close to show time? Didn’t he realize what was expected of him when he accepted Leo’s proposal? Didn’t he realize how it would look if Knight Killers were to go on-stage without him?

But he bit his tongue. There was something clearly wrong here. Nazuna didn’t know Eichi well — in fact, this might actually be the first time they’d properly spoken to each other — but he didn’t actually think Eichi was the type to cast aside his responsibilities for no good reason. He was the leader of fine after all, and he was sure that title came with its own burdens to carry.

Over the past few days, Nazuna had seen no reason to doubt his commitment to Knight Killers. So why was he here instead of at the stage wings with the others?

“W-we’re starting soon,” Nazuna explained, ignoring his earlier statement. He didn’t know what else to say, and his throat was starting to feel dry now that the adrenaline was starting to burn itself out.

It seemed to be enough though. Understanding lit up Eichi’s eyes instantly, but he made no move to get up.

“I see. My apologies, I must have lost track of time.”

He still did not move, and he and Nazuna sat a silence that grew more and more tense with each passing second. Nazuna squirmed nervously, not sure whether he should offer his hand to help him up. If Eichi needed it, he surely would have asked. Wouldn’t he? 

Eichi spoke again, sounding a little impatient.

“I’ll be there in a moment. Please leave me.”

Ah. Nazuna’s first reaction was to obey, to shrink away and do as he said. But something about this situation still didn’t sit well with him, and he could feel his doubts settle onto his expression in the form of a frown. As much as Eichi intimidated him, he was reluctant to leave him here in the darkness by himself. It seemed... lonely. And there wasn’t much point in returning to the others without Eichi now that he’d found him.

“I’ll wait,” he said firmly, despite his voice cracking a bit. “We’ll go back together.”

Eichi lifted his head fully at this, fixing Nazuna in a hard, icy stare. He ignored the urge to back away like he might have in the past, and fought past the sensation of his throat closing up. He wasn’t like he was back then, and he now found that the words he wanted to say were right at the tip of his tongue.

“If there’s something wrong then... let’s figure it out together.” He insisted, his hands curling into fists on his thighs. The more he spoke the easier it seemed to become, and the words spilled easily from his lips. “Knight Killers might just be a temporary unit, but for today we’re comrades. We’ll help each other. So rely on the rest of us a little~”

Eichi expression was unchanging as he processed this. Slowly, his face seemed to relax a little. Despite his reputation as the cold, calculating tyrant of Yumenosaki’s past, Nazuna found him surprisingly easy to read. He looked taken aback and curious more than anything else. Perhaps a little wary as well.

After a long moment, he let out a heavy sigh that seemed to expel all of the air from his body. 

“All right then. In that case, I’ll tell you.” He squeezed his arms around his knees a little tighter, even though he was smiling again. “To tell the truth, it’s a slight case of stage fright. Inconvenient, right?”

He said it the same way one would tell you what school club they were in, with confidence and perhaps the slightest hint of embarrassment. It took Nazuna a moment to get past the easy-going tone of his confession to process what he had actually said.

“You?!” Nazuna exclaimed before he could stop himself, and felt a cold rush of embarrassment flush through his body and heat up his cheeks. He clamped his mouth shut, but that single word couldn’t be taken back. He thought Eichi might be offended, but to Nazuna’s relief, he let out a soft huffing laugh. 

“Is it surprising?” He asked. His eyes seemed to be shining a little more than they had been before, his smile a little more relaxed. He almost seemed grateful at Nazuna’s shocked reaction. 

Nazuna didn’t know how to answer his question. Obviously, he found it surprising. Eichi hadn’t earned his nickname just from lurking offstage during the idol war. However much behind-the-scenes scheming and planning he had put into those malicious attacks on the Oddballs, he had also been right in the thick of those performances at the most decisive moment. He had always been the one to strike the killing blow — that was the reason his reputation was so soaked in blood, after all. 

All of that time, had he been afraid? Nazuna truly did find it hard to believe.

But the way Eichi was smiling vacantly — the way his gaze was starting to unfocus a bit in thought — made Nazuna think it was probably best not to ask. Eichi probably didn’t want to talk about it. Or even more likely, Nazuna probably didn’t need to hear it.

“It’s a little surprising,” Nazuna shrugged, for the sake of answering his question, however rhetorical the intent might have been. “But you’ve done this before right? You’ve performed with fine many times before now, after all. And you’ve always sounded incredible each time~”

Eichi looked up at his face questioningly, a little startled at this unprompted praise. Nazuna chuckled a bit at his reaction, unable to stop a warm smile from spreading across his features.

“It’s true~. We may not be fine, but Tenshouin shines with Knight Killers too, you know.”

Eichi hummed thoughtfully, his gaze dropping to the arms wrapped around his knees once more. “You make a good point. Knight Killers is a unit made of the best of the best — the chances of us losing are slim.”

A wave of relief washed over Nazuna at the tiny bit of confidence that was working its way back into his tone. “There, you see? There’s nothing to worry about — we’ll watch your back even if you feel scared.”

Eichi nodded slowly, like he was turning this all over in his head. Nazuna was struck at how strange and surreal this moment felt. Tenshouin Eichi, the former top idol of Yumenosaki, weak and vulnerable and jarringly human before him; and himself spilling encouragements like it was the most natural thing in the world when only a few months ago he had thought it impossible just to utter a simple heartfelt “thank you”.

He could see it in Eichi’s face too — a look that was vaguely afraid at what Nazuna had seen — what Nazuna would do with this knowledge — but stubbornly refusing to lower his head again in weakness. 

After a moment he held out his hand, surprising Nazuna with the most genuine smile he’d ever seen on him. The shorter boy stared dumbly for a moment, not sure if he was more startled at the sudden gesture, or the way Eichi’s eyes sparkled like waves in the summer sun. It took him only a split second to recover, reaching to take his hand in his own. He severely misjudged how much strength it would take to help pull Eichi up onto his feet — despite his height, he was much leaner than Nazuna had thought, and he accidentally pulled on his arm a bit too forcefully. Eichi stumbled into him, nose bumping roughly against Nazuna’s shoulder on his way up. He was laughing a bit as he righted himself.

“Are you okay?” Nazuna asked, his voice jumping a little unnaturally, still rough from the waves of adrenaline he’d experienced in the last five minutes. He reflexively reached out an arm to spot Eichi and inspected his face. His nose wasn’t bleeding, thankfully. 

Eichi nodded slowly in response to his question.

“Yes. I’ll be alright now.” He regarded Nazuna with a quiet curiousity that put Nazuna on edge, looking him over like it was the first time he’d really noticed him. Maybe it was.

They stepped out into the hallway. Miraculously, Nazuna could still hear the muffled sound of the student’s voices outside, indicating that they still had time to make it back before the show started. Eichi caught Nazuna’s wrist as he turned to walk back down the hallway to their teammates. Nazuna looked back at him, not quite able to mask the look of urgent exasperation he shot back. Didn’t he realize that they were running out of time? Eichi promptly ignored it.

“Here,” he said, gently pushing a plastic water bottle into Nazuna’s hands. He looked down at it, slightly dumbfounded. He certainly hadn’t been expecting to receive a gift — however mundane— in this situation. That hadn’t been why he’d come to find him, after all. Eichi sounded slightly embarrassed as he explained.

“I did drink some of it, but there’s still plenty left. You should have it — we need your voice at its full strength if Knight Killers is to be victorious after all.”

Nazuna didn’t know how to react, continuing to look down at the water bottle in his hands in stunned confusion. Eichi spoke again, starting to sound a little insistent at Nazuna’s hesitation.

“It’s not an appropriate exchange for your help, I realize. I can fix that later. But I still want to thank you somehow regardless.”

Nazuna shook himself from his stupor. “No it’s…” He swallowed a little as he looked back up at Eichi’s face. He looked endearingly anxious, waiting for Nazuna’s response, and the shorter boy couldn’t help but smile encouragingly back. “Thank you, Tenshouin.”

He looked visibly relieved, closing his eyes and giving a long sigh, that serene smile working its way back onto his face.

There was a sudden roar from the auditorium, and then all at once the voices died away. Nazuna could hear Leo’s loud voice breaking through the quiet to welcome the audience. The show had finally begun.

“Nito...kun? Is it alright if I call you that?” It was new to hear his name spoken in Eichi’s calm and level voice, and the sound of it replayed in Nazuna’s head a few times as he tried to get accustomed to it.

“Let’s have fun today,” Eichi said, and his entire demeanour seemed to change. The smile on his face was giddy and childish, his excitement permeating his words and seeming to flow from his body. He was the first to turn down the hallway this time, jogging backwards a few steps to see if he would follow before turning to down the hall towards the stage. Nazuna could feel that nervous pre-live energy filling up his body at the sound of Leo’s laughter reverberating through the walls, and he chuckled a bit as he hurried after him, recalling in amusement that he didn’t think he’d ever seen Eichi run before.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this~
> 
> I was mainly just thinking about circus the other day where Eichi explains that he tends to hide away before a live because he gets so anxious about appearances on-stage, and how circus and knight killers probably happen close enough chronologically that he could still have a habit of doing this occasionally, especially when performing with a unit he's not familiar with.
> 
> Also i'm still salty Eichi and Nazuna Never Interacted during knight killers, and it's probably the first time they really have an opportunity to interact after main story so. I'm doing this for myself.
> 
> Please yell at me about einazu [@supreme_kye](https://twitter.com/supreme_kye) on twitter


End file.
